Color lights seen flashing in the sky for a 4th night, Red Lodge, Montana and it aint Santa Claus. 12/24/10

My daughter and I observed this object for the past 4 days in the eastern hemisphere, seems to be following and cloaked by a planet or star. With the naked eye it appears to be a star but what grabbed my attention was the blinking blue and red lights. Using binoculars we saw the object quite separate from the star and larger. The object changed shapes sometimes triangular, cylinder with balls of light, circular with diamond pattern lights inside, semi-circle to cone, a triangle and v shape. All of these shapes flashed what looked like lightning blue, red and yellow colors inside. The object appeared semi-transparent.